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Moira

Experiment with colours

Experiment with colours
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II

settings

Aperture f/4 ISO 160 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 105/1

upload_date

Aug, 2017

Views

2598

Likes

+264

Awards

Zenith Award

Staff Favorite

Peer Award

+830

Outstanding Creativity

+52

Absolute Masterpiece

+17

Superb Composition

+12

Top Choice

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Genius

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

Happy

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in my studio in downtown Toronto ( Canada) It was a collaboration between the model ( Moira ) who did her own makeup and a student hair stylist. It was a true collaboration between photographer, makeup/model and hair stylist. Makeup done to to match hair and then lighting and settings by the photographer ( me )

Time

This was shot under controlled conditions in studio, mid afternoon on a Sunday in March. Time was not very significant, although I have learned not to shoot too early on a Sunday. Many people stay up very late on Saturday nights, so being fresh and ready on a Sunday is important. Since we were in studio and did not have to worry and busy streets or location of the sun, we shot in the afternoon and a good rest Sunday morning.

Lighting

The lighting for this shoot was a basic glamour or "clam-shell" lighting. Others may call it butterfly lighting or paramount lighting . A 60" Octobox was used as the key light with reflectors under the models face... about waist high to fill in the shadows. An interesting ntet about the shot. The models head for this series of shots ( This was one look in a series shot that day ) is turned camera left to avoid reflections if the lighting in the semi reflective glasses she had on. Notice the texture in the glasses... foam core. A piece of white foam core was brought in tight so only the foam-core and not the rest of the studio was reflected in the glasses. The foam core was coloured yellow because it was reflecting the yellow gelled strobes that were lighting a grey paper backdrop. No Photoshop applied to the glasses. No vignette was applied in post. That was the grids on strobes, gelled with yellow filters

Equipment

Simple camera combination. Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. Shot at F4 for depth and 105 mm to all assist with giving a soft feel for the hair and help blend/blur the background. This lens is my "go to " lens, but it was not quite in the sweet-spot, opened as wide as it can go at max focal length on this image. Still, quite a sharp lens even at the max. I normally shoot portraits with this lens around 85 mm on a full frame sensor and f/6.3 is as sharp as sharp can be. But for giving a bit of blur and depth to the shot, we chose F/4 and 105 mm. Shot with our Elinchrom RX 300 in the 60" octobox, we got the soft shadows and able to get the power down so we could shoot open at F4. No tripod.... even I can shoot steady hand at 1/160th second

Inspiration

The inspiration for the shoot was really just 3 people who wanted to produce a few "cool" shots on a Sunday afternoon. Moira, the model and MUA, wanted to collaborate with her hairstylist friend for a look she thought would be fun to showcase her makeup and asked me to shoot it for her portfolio. Most photographers know that to not screw up a shot, go clam-shell lighting..... easy setup and flattering lighting on most people. We wanted it well lit and show off the makeup and hair.

Editing

Very little post work, actually. I used frequency separation to take out any blemishes. I wanted to be careful not to mess up the skin since we wanted to keep the skin and makeup as natural as possible... or better put, that the shot reflected the look was due to the makeup and not post work. We cropped, took out blemishes and I don't believe we even touched any hue / saturation on these shots. I am going to say I must have done a bit of additional saturation, but I don't see it the the post work when I went to double check. Just blemish removal . Everything else was in camera.

In my camera bag

Normally, I have my 5d Mark II.... but that will be changing soon. It will remain a backup camera. Lens, 85 prime, f1.8, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, 50mm f/1.4 USM and 100mm f/2.8L Macro. Back up is my old 50D crop sensor...... have not used it in years, but I have to take 2 camera per shoot.... just in case of a falure and , unfortunately, I am not quite at the point where I can have an expensive backup camera collecting dust. I shoot mostly studio, so my bag will have my grey-card and light meter when I travel. I have a set of inexpensive 300 w/s flash-heads with battery pack for location shooting. Not to powerful... mostly shooting on location boudoir or portrait and 300 has always been powerful enough for my location shooting. When I need more power, I bring my studio strobes.

Feedback

It's hard to give advice when I feel I am still learning every time I shoot. I can only suggest that if anyone wanted to shoot something similar to this, experiment. Try to get the image you want, but then experiment. I have this shot in Lightroom with grey, black, blue background as well. Also, learn about makeup. Your lighting will work in combination with the makeup artist to do what makeup does, highlight, or shape the face / body etc. Work with the makeup and work with what you are given. Don't use your light and shadow work to fight against what the makeup artist and stylist and model are giving you, but work with it and try to understand what the gang is looking for and augment it.

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photorp

photorp

Moira

Experiment with colours

Behind The Lens

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